Excavation

Date 1961

Event ID 606694

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/606694

(NR 9168 9252) A group of five roughly rectangular buildings on the only island in Loch Glashan was excavated in 1961, previous to the site's being flooded by a hydro-electric scheme in the autumn of the same year.

The excavation, which was a joint enterprise by DoE, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, and Glasgow University, revealed that three of the buildings (I, II and III on plan) were medieval, as shown by the recovery of 13th - 14th century pottery and coins, one of Edward II of England (1307-1327) and one of Robert II of Scotland (1370-1390). The walls were dry-stone, possibly with turf, and the floors were earthen. Domestic structures are indicated except in the case of Building I which yielded no domestic finds and is of the correct orientation and proportions for a chapel, as well as being of slightly less primitive workmanship than the other buildings. The two remaining buildings were later, one being a recent bothy.

The buildings lay on a revetted artificial terrace, and a stock-pound lay behind them. Both these features were shown to be contemporary with the early buildings, as was the causeway which connected the island to the shore.

Some beautifully worked stones, which were found incorporated spasmodically in the walls of the early buildings, were obviously never intended for the usage made of them, and a rebated arch, which compares with the arch of Kilmory Church (NM80SE 3), suggests that a church may have been projected on the terrace, whose careful preparation seems out of keeping with the relatively mean buildings which occupied it. If this were so, there is neither recorded nor place-name evidence that a church was ever built, nor did extensive trenching reveal any trace, but there is a local belief that the island was once the site of a monastery.

H Fairhurst and J G Scott 1961; H Fairhurst 1969